


local man finds estranged friend at drugstore past midnight

by gaytimetraveller



Category: Persona 2, Persona | Revelations Persona
Genre: but like. Its There. Theres Vague Spoilers. Might As Well, really this isnt so much persona 2 more like post p2 p1 lads havin a chat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-22 18:39:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12488292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaytimetraveller/pseuds/gaytimetraveller
Summary: Hidehiko goes out to buy snacks two weeks after the end of the world, and manages to bump right into not only the friend he hasn't seen since high school, but possibly the only one who he'd kind of expected to be there should there be a second apocalypse, and actually wasn't.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> aka local man finds estranged goth friend at drugstore past midnight what happens next will shock you !! that title is far too long to actual use
> 
> anyways this is just me here back at it again bc for a while ive thought just the concept of after all this time no one's seen naoya they find him, at a convenience store of some kind, buying spaghetti-os

Two in the morning on a Friday night wasn’t a time Hidehiko should’ve been at the convenience store. He should’ve been at home, sleeping, or out at a party, or even watching a movie or something, not down at the Yumezaki Satomi Tadashi’s. Hell, it wasn’t even really a convenience store, he could’ve tried the (much more shady) corner store near his apartment, but at least he knew the stock. Even if the price was a ripoff, he was guaranteed to find a few cans of soda and some snacks.

Hidehiko skimmed a rack of candy bars, barely the names. He grabbed one without looking much, it didn’t really matter, he just needed something to eat. He’d barely slept in two weeks. It was almost hard to believe it’d been two weeks, already two weeks since the city had actually come back down to the ground, two weeks since those kids had had to risk their lives. The aftermath was always the worst part. It was hard to make jokes when everyone was just struggling to figure things out and fix things again. All he could do was plaster on a smile and carry on.

The bell on the door rung, but Hidehiko barely noticed over the sound of the Satomi Tadashi theme blaring throughout the store. He picked up a whole carton of orange juice for good measure, then a box of crackers. Good enough, he figured. Crackers, orange juice, and a candy bar, the perfect midnight snack for human cooking disaster and comedic genius Hidehiko Uesugi. Maybe he could make a joke out of this, he hadn’t had any actual new good material in a week, it was hard to write comedy on no sleep and a diet of entirely snacks.

He headed towards the counter without even looking up, and walked right into someone. He jolted back, fumbling to not drop the carton of orange juice. He was about to stutter out an apology when he looked up and saw—Naoya?

Naoya stared back down, and on reflex Hide’s eyes went right to his ear. Still pierced, thank god. He almost seemed like a late night half-awake dream, dressed in black from head to toe, still the same haircut from high school, still the same earring (but he had another one now, two on one ear), and somehow he smelled oddly like a grandma’s house, which was to say vaguely floral and mothballs.

“Hidehiko! It’s been, what, two years?” Naoya’s hands waved in the air, fluttering around Hide’s shoulders like he was going to reach out and steady him while he still fumbled with his snacks, but he never actually did.

For the first time in at least a week, Hidehiko actually genuinely cracked a smile and laughed. He’d barely been talking to his friends. This was nice. “Since when are you in town? No one’s heard from you in halfway to forever,”

“I got in tonight, Maki said I missed a lot,”

“Now that’s an understatement,” Hidehiko snorted, and started off towards the counter again. “We’ve really gotta catch up. I can’t believe you called Maki before your best friend and _best_ of your friends! Me!”

Naoya laughed lightly and set down a few cans of spaghetti-o’s on the counter. “We could even talk a bit tonight or something,” he smiled at Hidehiko and he already knew exactly where this was going to end up.

“Of course, of course!” Hidehiko smiled back, smiled because his friend was back, smiled because any nerves he might’ve had didn’t make their way into his voice. He thought of the mess at his apartment and bit back a wince. “You can come over tonight if you want!” he vaguely hoped this wouldn’t crush any perceptions Naoya had about his organized adult life. He hid a shaking hand behind the carton of orange juice.

(Oh, who was he kidding? He was Hidehiko Uesugi, television comedian and human wreck. He wasn’t sure if Naoya had ever seen through the cracks or not, past all the jokes and self-protecting narcissism. Well, maybe hanging out with Naoya was worth it. He hoped.)

Naoya just smiled and nodded as he dished out far too much money for a few cans of spaghetti-o’s. Hidehiko mentally prepared himself as he set down his juice and snacks, then digging for his wallet.

A few moments and some overpriced orange juice later, the two started walking back towards Hidehiko’s apartment. He stared at the sky, swinging his shopping bag back and forth. “You have no idea how nice it is to see the stars so far away again,” he said, turning towards Naoya with a grin. “You’re gonna die when you hear what happened, wish you’d been here,”

“I missed that much?” he laughed, turning up to stare at the sky.

“Oh yeah, it all started with this clown cult,” at that, Hidehiko almost expected him to laugh, but he didn’t, he just kept that same smile.

“All Maki told me was that the new guy punched Philemon,”

It was Hidehiko’s turn to laugh that time. “I missed that too, and honestly? It was probably the best part.”


	2. part 2: the electric boogaloo aka hidehiko almost sets his apartment on fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i was supposed to study physics tonight but i was absolutely compelled to write about hidehiko's really unfortunate microwaving habits that are canon in my heart this is awful

When Hidehiko opened the door to his apartment he hoped that maybe, somehow, it would look like less of a mess at half past two in the morning than it did in the daylight. When he flicked on the lights, it was still a massive mess. Naoya didn’t seem to give a damn and tumbled right into the apartment, not hesitating even a moment to flop himself down on Hidehiko’s fairly ugly and crumb-filled couch.

Poor Hide himself scrambled after him into the living room, dashing to pick up empty chip bags and old pop cans. “Make yourself comfortable! Make yourself at home! I’ve just got to, tidy up,” Hidehiko spoke too fast, too nervous. “Do you wanna watch a movie or something? Or play games?” he laughed somewhat nervously as he threw out the chip bags. “We could play Worms on the playstation,”

Naoya scrambled into sitting up and turned around on the couch, looking over the back to smile and raise an eyebrow. “Worms?”

“You’ve never played Worms?”

“No?”

Hidehiko laughed, much more nervously this time. “How about Mario 64? I’ll set up the nintendo,” he looped back around the couch, quick to lean over and start plugging in the console. He started hauling two controllers out of a pile of controllers and cords, and started vigorously shaking the pile to try to untangle it. That didn’t work. He looked over and Naoya was staring at the ceiling, a mystery as always. There was something particularly dreamlike to him in the half dim lighting of the apartment, almost unreal. Half of a thought came to Hidehiko’s head and he nearly punched himself for it. He quashed that train of thought down before it left the station.

He got back to untangling the cords, and managed to extract at least one controller without breaking anything. Another few minutes of struggling got him another one. He plugged both in and was about to turn it on, but then he whipped around, “Hey, Naoya, do you want something to eat?”

Naoya turned over, smiling and nodding. Hidehiko took that as enough cue. He awkwardly got up and went off around the couch, back to the kitchen. “We can have snacks later, want some soup first?” he tried to toss a can of tomato soup from one hand to the other and it dropped to the floor. Classic human disaster Hidehiko Uesugi, awkward no coordination Hidehiko Uesugi.

“Sure,” Naoya seemed to be settling himself into facing the tv, fidgeting on the old couch, making it creak against the floor. It was thrifted, of course, despite Hidehiko’s tv station job. He wasn’t _that_ rich.

Hidehiko, nervous as ever and out of jokes to tell, cracked open the microwave. He didn’t even blink as he put the entire can of tomato soup in the microwave. The whole can. The whole unopened can. The _metal_ can. Full of tomato soup.

He had a habit of doing that every now and then. He was starting to wonder why his microwaves never lasted very long.

He cheerily slammed the microwave closed, turned it on, and turned around. The microwave started to spark; it took him a moment to notice. Naoya looked over the back of the couch at the noise. Hidehiko tried to smile and wave him off, but then it made another loud pop and he jumped around.

The can was on fire. Lovely.

“Shit! Shit! Son of a bitch!” Hidehiko unplugged the microwave. Naoya leaped over the back of the couch.

Neither of them seemed to know what to actually do, so Hidehiko almost did what he usually did in these situations (call Yukino until she showed up to help him), but then remembered it was half past two in the morning. Yukino would absolutely kill him. Naoya just kicked open the microwave and threw water on it. Hidehiko really hoped they wouldn’t burn down his apartment. He laughed beyond nervously as the flame looked like it was going down.

After a moment he turned to Naoya and cracked possibly the most anxious smile he had that week. “So, Mario 64?”

Naoya only smiled, and started laughing. 


End file.
